Once you have published your book, marketing becomes key. It is estimated there is one new book on Amazon every five minutes. They publish over 3.4 million titles a year. It is easy to get lost in the fray. But don’t let this get you down or dissuade you. Yes, competition is tight. But there are also 156 million Amazon Prime subscribers worldwide. That’s a big audience and a lot of potential buyers for your book.
Figuring out who your audience is
You’ve written this great book, but do you know who you’ve written it for? If you have an audience of science fiction fanatics and you try to sell them a romance novel, you may run into problems.
There are two different types of books: Nonfiction and Fiction. Figuring this out is easy. Nonfiction books tend to be history, biography, dictionary, travel books, and How To books, or some type of science book. Fiction books are a story that the author created such as romance or adventure. Below is a list of book genres. Take a look at it and see if you recognize your audience.
List of Book Genres
Fiction | Nonfiction |
Action and adventure | Art/architecture |
Alternate history | Autobiography |
Anthology | Biography |
Chick lit | Business/economics |
Children’s | Crafts/hobbies |
Classic | Cookbook |
Comic book | Diary |
Coming-of-age | Dictionary |
Crime | Encyclopedia |
Drama | Guide |
Fairytale | Health/fitness |
Fantasy | History |
Graphic novel | Home and garden |
Historical fiction | Humor |
Horror | Journal |
Mystery | Math |
Paranormal romance | Memoir |
Picture book | Philosophy |
Poetry | Prayer |
Political thriller | Religion, spirituality, and new age |
Romance | Textbook |
Satire | True crime |
Science fiction | Review |
Short story | Science |
Suspense | Self help |
Thriller | Sports and leisure |
Western | Travel |
Young adult | True crime |
Your book may fall into one or more genres. It could be a young adult romance, or a historical fiction action and adventure.
Another way to figure out the genres for your book would be to go to this website here. Locate the ASIN or ISBN on Amazon for a book that looks similar to yours. Enter it in the box and click Search. Below you will see a list of categories / genres that book is in.
Don’t look at just one. Figure out which genres actually fit your book. This can make or break your marketing efforts and it is a very important step in setting up your marketing plan.
Once you know who your audience is, you can then market to them. Ads cost money and you don’t want to market to a group of potential buyers who will never be interested in your book.
Categories: Marketing, Publishing